A rickshaw is a bike with a seat for two or three people in the back. A wallah is the driver of a rickshaw. Normally a rickshaw costs around 20-25 takas (40 cents) for a ride that lasts 10-20 minutes. A rickshaw driver usually rents his rickshaw from an owner. He earns about 100-200 taka a day after paying the rent. We usually travel in the town. If there are two people on the rickshaw you sit side by side. If there are three people, one person sits on top of the seat with their legs around someone and their feet on someone's lap, and the other two people sit side by side. It is fun because it is not as noisy as a car. It is not fun when you have to go over big bumps like train tracks. I have seen so many rickshaws that I cannot count them. A woman has never been a wallah because women in Bangladesh have to be at home taking care of everyone, including the house.
This boy is not a wallah. He just wanted to be in the picture. Wallah's are teenage boys or adult men.
Hi DeWilde family:
ReplyDeleteWe are really enjoying all your travel tales. The pics are great, I'm sure you're taking a ton of them. You'll have an awesome powerpoint some day. Take care and don't let the mosquitos bite!
Take care and have fun.
George Rankin
Peterborough
(friend of Don & Sharon's)
Wow, now there's a bike!
ReplyDeleteI love that...I could use one of those for toting groceries + the kids around too.
I wonder how fast they go?
I bet those drivers are in better shape than Lance Armstrong.